Reaching the Latino Community in Colorado

Betsy Ambrosino, Bilingual Senior Coordinator Cooking Matters Colorado

“Latinos—the largest racial and ethnic minority group in the nation—face a disproportionately high rate of hunger and food insecurity;” (NCLR Nutrition Report 2006) Cooking Matters for Teens class participants, Fall 2011

63% of participants served in Cooking Matters programming in Colorado self-identified as Latino or Hispanic in 2010.

No Kid Hungry Colorado Campaign

• The No Kid Hungry Colorado Campaign launched in November 2009

• The Campaign is a partnership between the office of Governor Hickenlooper, Hunger Free Colorado, and Share Our Strength

• Visit the new No Kid Hungry Colorado Campaign website at: co.nokidhungry.org

No Kid Hungry Colorado 10 Point Plan

1. Provide children access tohealthy meals during the summer.

2. Ensure that all children have access to a nutritious breakfast.

3. Support families with the ability to purchase and acquire food to prepare at home.

4. Ensure the nutrition and health of pregnant and postpartum women, infants and young children.

5. Support child care providers’ ability to provide healthy meals and snacks.

6. Help afterschool programs provide children with good nutrition and healthy snacks.

7. Encourage children and families to make healthy food choices through nutrition education-Cooking Matters.

8. Ensure access to high-quality nutritious food in low-income communities and schools.

9. Ensure families can access food from food banks and food pantries.

10. Improve the economic security of working families.

Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters® empowers families at risk

of hunger with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make

healthy and affordable meals. With the help of volunteer culinary

and nutrition experts, course participants learn how to select

nutritious and low-cost ingredients and prepare them in ways that provide the best nourishment

possible to their families.

Barriers to reaching the

Latino Community

•Language

•Geographic accessibility of resources and services

•Familiarity

Eliminating the Barriers: Language• Cooking Matters Colorado and Hunger Free Colorado employ bilingual staff

members to help to serve the Spanish-speaking community in Colorado• Spanish-speaking volunteer program• Interpreter guidelines• Working in a bilingual, multicultural classroom—instead of frustrating,

think of it as beneficial! – some volunteers and participants speak English only, some speak Spanish only—

successfully providing interpretation in both English and Spanish helps to encourage participants’ and volunteers learning in both languages, and breaks down barriers to understanding different cultures!

-Cooking Matters para Familias chef works with interpreter and families to facilitate group learning

Label Reading Becomes an ESL Lesson

9

Leyendo las etiquetas en inglés/español:

Whole Grains-Granos Enteros

Siempre que pueda, ¡elija granos enteros! Siempre queremos escoger productos que tienen un grano entero como el primer ingrediente en la lista de ingredientes en la etiqueta.

¡Busque la palabra “WHOLE”! (se pronuncia como “-jol” en la palabra “frijol”)

WHOLE=ENTERO/INTEGRAL

Otras palabras que significan “grano entero”:

Whole wheat/trigo integral Whole grain/grano entero

Whole (rolled) oats or oatmeal/avena integral Brown rice/arroz integral

Whole grain corn/maíz integral Whole grain cornmeal/harina de maíz integral

Whole grain barley/cebada integral Quinoa/quínoa

Popcorn/palomitas de maíz Bulgur/bulgur

Wild Rice/Arroz Silvestre Whole Rye/Centeno entero

Buckwheat/Trigo Sarraceno Millet/Mijo

¡Lea cuidadosamente!

Las etiquetas que contienen las palabras “multi-grain/multigrano,” “stone-ground/molido en piedra,” “100% wheat/100% trigo,” “cracked wheat/trigo partido,” o “seven-grain/siete granos,” en la etiqueta usualmente no son productos de granos enteros.

Eliminating the Barriers: Geographic

• Cooking Matters’ model is to partner with local agencies who serve low-income families• Cooking Matters brings the class to the agencies where families already feel

comfortable and have established bonds (public schools, faith-based organizations, food pantries, Head Starts, WIC clinics, community centers)

• Cooking Matters CO also participates in 1-time educational outreach events doing nutritious food demonstrations in places like youth farmer’s markets, produce and health fairs held at Public Health Departments, and at food pantries

• Participants learn affordable shopping skills during grocery store tours in Week 5 of Cooking Matters for Adults/para Adultos courses or in Shopping Matters tours.

• Grocery store tours are held where the participants prefer to shop locally, so that we can encourage healthy habits where they already shop.

HFC Summer Food Website(summerfoodcolorado.org)

•Linguistically-appropriate Food Assistance and Summer Meal outreach cards•A fully bilingual (multilingual in fact) Food Assistance & Summer Meal hotline for Spanish-speakers to call to find the closest summer meal sites or to be screened for all public assistance programs

These business cards are distributed to agencies serving low-income families throughout the state and in each Cooking

Matters course held in the spring and summer.

Food Assistance and Summer Meals: Eliminating the Geographic and Language Barriers

Summer Meals:Eliminating Geographic and Linguistic Barriers

•http://summerfoodcolorado.org/ This unique mapping tool helps families find the summer meal sites closest to their home

Cooking Matters Colorado staffdistributes lists of the 3 closest

meal sites to all spring and summer course participants in Spanish and

English (104 courses completed May-August 2011)

•Go where participants go•Reliable interpretation•Childcare•Familiarity with foods available and local food sources•Recipe choices

• Cooking Matters sends home grocery bags so that participants can practice the recipes and new ingredients learned in class at home with their families.

Eliminating the Barriers: Familiarity

¡Cooking Matters con Zumba!

Successful Outreach Strategies• Reliable services in Spanish• Bring services to the

community• SNAP outreach and

enrollment assistance in Cooking Matters courses

• Spanish-speaking outreach and marketing campaign

• Bilingual staff• Help to establish more

summer meal sites (203 in 2009, 309 in 2010)

Moorhead Recreation CenterAurora, Colorado

School District 84% Free and Reduced Lunch Rate

Cooking Matters para adultos and

familias courses

SNAP Outreach

and enrollment assistance during CM

courses

Summer Meal Site

Summer Meals and School Breakfast

Outreach in CMC courses

Surrounding public schools participate in

universal Free and Reduced

Lunch     

Pantry food demos and recipe cards